Experimental Physics and
Industrial Control System

Dirk Zimoch via Core-talk <core-talk at aps.anl.gov> · Tue, 09 Jun 2020 07:56:14 -0000

I have tested with 3.14.12 and found that "" is fine as a record name, but segfaults when linking to it (or rather to ".VAL" as linking to "" itself does not work of course).
Also " " and "a b" and even "\"" work as record names but print warnings. Linking to them is impossible though.
I have no problem at all with the record names "1,3" or "[1,3]" or linking to them in 3.14.12.
But in EPICS 7 of course instead of linking to [1,3] I get a constant array.

Also using TAB as the record name works fine in 3.14.7 but I cant link
to it any more in 7.

That means EPICS 7 already broke my perfectly working database. Of
course only because I used silly record names.

I don't seen why we should care more about compatibility with records []
and [42] than with [1,3]?

I am very fond of the principle of least surprise. So what would be the bigger surprise?
a) [42] and [] are not valid record names
b) [42,43] and [42,] are valid arrays but [42] and  [] are not

To me, b) was a big surprise.

What about a rule like: 
1. No dot (.), no quotes (" and '), no chars below ASCII/Unicode 0x21.
2. First char is none of: {[<(
3. Otherwise any unicode char (e.g. !äßáñçµš录)

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https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/1882520

Title:
  Constant arrary input links of size 1 don't work

Status in EPICS Base:
  In Progress

Bug description:
  Constant input links in array form with 1 element don't work and
  return an empty array.

  Example:
  field (INP, [42])

  As soon as a comma is present, it works:
  field (INP, [42,])

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Experimental Physics and Industrial Control System

Experimental Physics and
Industrial Control System